Katie Milner closes in on title glory

Andy Bloomfield

Huggate racing driver Katie Milner’s dream of being the first girl to win the National Junior Saloon Car Championship are becoming a distinct possibility after two more podium positions.

Coming first in Sunday’s initial race at Brands Hatch and second in the next race, she has extended her eight-point lead at just over the halfway point in the competition.

She is knocking on the door of Sarah Moore’s record as the only female to have won five races in national junior racing competitions. Milner has now won a total of four races after a high octane season so far.

The 16-year-old led her first race from start to finish. Despite a poor qualifier for race two, which placed her seventh on the grid, she pulled it back to cross the line a hair’s breadth from the winning car and she also notched up the race’s fastest lap.

She said: “I wanted to achieve two podiums this weekend, so to have done that feels amazing.

“Now, I just want to achieve podium places for the rest of the season.”

She added: “I’ve been asked lots of times how I feel being a female in this sport.

“I think that just goes to show how stereotypical motor racing is,because a male wouldn’t even be asked that question.

“In my first two races of the season I had engine problems,so I didn’t reach my full potential. Then, in my second meeting I went out and won the first race.

“That shocked some people but gave me the confidence that I do deserve to be up there on the podium

“I hope with this latest win I’m also showing that this isn’t just a male dominated sport.”

Milner’s next JSCC race is on July 24 at Croft.

Seventeen in November, this will be her last year in the JSCC and she is already setting her sights on moving up to the Mini Challenge competition, catering for the 17 and upwards age group, in 2017.